Man, how 10 hours can change your opinion of a game. I was a little underwhelmed at first, but now I can strongly proclaim that Twilight Princess is the funnest game I've played in the last 5 years. This game has me up all night, and I'm loving every moment of it.

I just got the Zora Armor. I have the game saved at the beginning of the Lakebed Temple.....but I don't know if I want to do that yet. To tell you the truth, I really want to go out there and look for heart pieces. I also haven't figured out any of those wolf songs yet...I've tried but I don't have any idea what's going on. I want to go back and see if there is anymore Sumo wrestling to be done. Most of all, I want to go back and check all the shops to see if there is another fishing rod, because this flyrod that Colin made just isn't doing it for me anymore. I've been staying away from strategy guides and walkthroughs...so my time is probably a bit slower than the hardcore player.

So many unanswered questions at this point, that's what makes this game exciting. Should I bother roaming the fields and collecting bugs? What do I do with these Poe spirits? For me, not knowing is half the fun.

I don't even know which dungeon this is. I know there are 9 dungeons....is the Lakebed Temple dungoen number 6? Not that it matters.....

It still pisses me off that the game stops to tell me I have 5 rupees everytime I pick up a blue rupee. Did it do that in Wind Waker? I can't remember.

Enough of this rant. I'm off to play some more now. Maybe I'll do the Lakebed Temple. But I don't really feel like it right now. Maybe I'll just spend a few hours checking out other stuff.

I recieved my copy of Twilight Princess in the mail yesterday and have been playing fairly regularly since. From all the things I've been reading in Gamespot's reviews, others player's blogs and forums, I thought I would have a fairly good idea of the experience I'd be in for.

First of all the graphics...I was expecting them to be a little subpar....but I find them to be superb. Sure, if you've spend countless hours staring at the countryside in Oblivion, you'd find Zelda to be pretty ugly. As for the comments some have about Wind Waker looking better, I have to say yes and no. Twilght Princess looks amazing for the art style it is trying to convey, but that art style ages quickly because it tries to convey something close to reality, in a sense. At this moment in time, Twilight's visuals are blowing me away. Wind Waker's art style tries to convey a cartoon, and does so extremely successfully. Ten years from now, we'll still be wondering why most games don't look as good as Wind Waker, and explaining that even though Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess look like **** now, they WERE revolutionary at the time. Or maybe Ocarina of Time was.

But the real point about Twilight's visuals are that they look superb, and while they may not look "current gen" ( gotta stop using "next") they are certainly in league with the very best of "last" gen including RE4, FFXII, MGS3, Ninja Gaiden  and Morrowind. Also, I'm running the game through standard unexciting composite cables, and it looks great. I don't think it could look much clearer. For those who have complained about it being too blurry, here's a hint: You need a new TV.

The sound....man...I love the music, but sometimes the it just stinks of N64, which is not a good thing. The sound effects are all good though, and I don't mind reading instead of spoken dialogue. As the first Baten Kaitos has taught me, sometimes no voices are better than bad ones.

Gameplay...Pretty standard Ocarina of Time stuff, until you become the wolf, which I'm loving. I never did play Okami,  so I don't know how much the two games are alike, but I find interacting with a fantasy world like Zelda in the form of a wolf refreshing. I've done alot of fooling around with the wolf, which probably accounts for my 7 hours into the game and only started the second dungoen. I have had more fun with the wolf and the twilight realm that I had expected to. I would say that this part of the game is very innovative.

Of all the complaints I've read, none of them really bother me all that much. Control is tight, not Wiimote tight for aiming, but much better than any previous 3D Zelda. Music can sound ancient, but the compositions are catchy and fit the mood of the game well. The cinemas are impressive, and I don't really mind a lack of voice. I think the characters convey emotions extremely well without it.

But you know what really annoys me? Everytime I pick up a blue 5 rupee piece and a yellow 10 rupee piece, the game stops and tells you..."You have just found 5 rupees!" Yeah, thanks. Thanks for that. To spin this in a positive light, this game has a marvelous grasp on the obvious.

These are just my first impressions. I'm loving this game, and that's all that matters. Now, looks like the wife has fallen asleep so the TV's mine. Time to play.

By looking at my collection, one would assume that I am a total Nintendo fanboy. This isn't true at all. Gamecube as my platform of choice was a decision made by the fact that I could only have one system in my house (my wife wants me to quit spending so much money on games), online was not available for me ( I like my consoles in English, but I live in Japan; XBOX Live and PS2online does not cross regions) and I wanted to old games from the NES, SNES, Genesis and Dreamcast Era ( Gameboy player makes most of this possible, Cube has most of the DC's best games ). This in mind, I have recently been thinking that if I was to purchase another system this generation, that it would not be the Wii. I've had my eye on the PS3.

Why? Well, first and foremost, I could play all the great exclusives from the PS2 such as Final Fantasy XII, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus and Gran Turismo 4. I could play my collection of PS1 games that are packed away back at my parent's house. I could convince my wife that it's a DVD player that just happens to play games. And I could probably play the PS3 until 2013, since Sony's machines seems to have a long life span. Part of this reason is Japanese game publisher's seem to support the Playstation line without question, since the Playstation line dominates Japan.

Until this morning.

There has always been one game in Japan that can determine the outcome of a generation in this country. Dragon Quest. While Final Fantasy is big in Japan, Dragon Quest is much, much bigger. It wasn't the loss of Final Fantasy VII that had Nintendo questioning the design of it's own 64-bit system, it was the loss of Dragon Quest VII. The move of Dragon Quest from Nintendo platforms to Sony cemented Nintendo's number 2 position in Japan for years to come. Japanese gamers knew they must own Sony's machine in order to play the next Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest VIII sold an incredible amount of copies for the PS2 in Japan, more than any other PS2 game I think ( I can't be sure...but I'm sure it must be in the Top 3). I think everyone can agree that Dragon Quest IX is going to be a huge game.

Dragon Quest IX will be released on the Nintendo DS in 2007

I couldn't believe it when I saw the commercial on television this morning. It was only the Dragon Quest theme playing with the title logo over a black screen, but it clearly had the DS logo beneath the title, and nowhere was a Sony logo to be found. This, in my opinion, has determined that the DS will defeat all in Japan during 2007. Surprising, not only that it's not Sony's system, but also, it's coming to a handheld.

I believe this move is a historic moment in gaming. Just as Final Fantasy VII was huge for Sony back in the day, this is huge for Nintendo. While the fate of the Wii remains to be seen, the fate of the DS is crystal clear. As is the fate of the PSP. Unfortunately, the PSP will now forever be number 2 in Japan. This has left me wondering if Final Fantasy XIII, MGS4 and Gran Turismo 5 are enough to move PS3's, enough for Sony to get back to number one spot.

Unlikely, in my opinion.

Mario: New Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi's Island 2 are indeed high points as of late. Super Mario Galaxy hopefully does a better job with the 3D platformer than Sunshine did. The platforming Mario games have always been the best of Mario. They really need to cut back on the spin off series, Mario Sports in particular. There were far too many Mario spin off franchises on the Cube. It has deluted the integrity of the character.

Metriod: I feel Metriod Prime is by far the best game in the Metriod series, and the best Gamecube game of all time. Having played the Metriod series from it's inception, I was really surprised at how well they managed to keep the Metriod gameplay intact in a 3D environment. Like Mario 64 and Orcarina of Time, Prime was a triumph for Nintendo. I do feel that the 3D iterations of the game are best left to consoles, while 2D games of the series should continue on the DS. Metriod Prime 3 will be a solid entry to a great series.

Donkey Kong: Ever since the Donkey Kong Country games, this franchise has been in serious trouble. During Rare's tenure on the N64, they created two DK games: "Diddy Kong Racing" and "Donkey Kong 64" that brought nothing new in terms of gameplay elements or design. Copycat games of the Mario franchise, the integrity of the Donkey Kong brand was comprimised, in my opinion. Seeing Donkey Kong attached to the bongo controller technology during the Cube's lifespan was the result of not being able to move a regular 3D plaformer with the license attached to it. I think Nintendo needs to look back at 1994's Gameboy Donkey Kong release as to see where to go with the franchise in the future.

Starfox: Although I enjoyed Adventures and Assult, they are definately lesser games than the almighty Starfox 64. The biggest problem with this series is that Nintendo themselves hadn't touched it since Starfox 64. Starfox Adventures was a Rare game originally called Dinosaur Planet being developed for the N64 which was moved to Gamecube and had the Starfox universe shoe-horned into the game. It was to buy time with a familiar franchise until Mario, Metriod and Zelda could be released. A pleasent Zelda clone after the first few boring hours of the game. The problem with Assult is that it was handed to Namco and was originally going to be a multiplayer only game, but took on a life of it's own and tried to be an all-in-one of all elements seen in the Starfox universe thus far, including Adventures. Nintendo needs to reel this franchise back in, put an internal dev team to work under the direction of Shigeru Miyamoto in order for it to evolve.

Zelda: Three generations of gamers hold three different Zelda games as the greatest games of all time. Old school NES dudes swear by the 1986 original, others believe in was 1993's A Link to the Past that was the pinnicle of the series. I, like many others, hold 1998's Orcarina of Time as the greatest game of all time. That's the main problem the Zelda series faces: astronomically ridiculous expectations. The jump from 2D to 3D is probably the biggest evolution the series will ever have. I think ever since 1998's Orcarina of Time, all fans wanted was a sequel with slight upgrades. Now, almost nine years later, we're getting one. This is the main problem with Twilight Princess. Forget the fact that the Wii controller has been shoe-horned into a Gamecube game; the reality is that this is a sequel to an eight-year-old game with only graphical and small gameplay enhancements. Since this is a sequel to one of the greatest games ever created, is that a bad thing? No, but it's a far cry from the legendary upgrades the sreies has seen over the previous 21 years. The next console Zelda game needs to be built ground up for the Wii, to take every possible advantage of that controller. It also needs production values never seen before in a Zelda game or any Nintendo game for that matter. I think Shigeru Miyamota should once again be directly involved with the next Zelda.

Pokemon: Put simply, needs to be a console MMORPG. By the very nature of the concept of Pokemon, this is the direction the series needs to head. Everything that made the original groundbreaking: the collection aspect, the player between player trading and the player vs player battles screams for this evolution. Anything else is a waste of time. I lost interest in the Pokemon series a long time ago, due to stagnation of the franchise.

Kirby: Is doing quite well in his little niche. It's too bad the GC game never came out, but this series continues to do what it has always done best: be completely accessable and fun.

5. Zelda will be a better experience on Gamecube. Go figure, that's the platform it was built for. I'm sure the Wii version is great too, but not $320.00 great.

4. The Gamecube isn't quite dead yet. It's true, the Gamecube's funeral is soon, but this holiday season still has a few excellent games that are worth playing. Other than Twilight Princess, there's Tomb Raider Legends, Baten Kaitos Origins, NFS: Carbon, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Splinter Cell Double Agent and Lego Star Wars II. Even if none of these tickle your fancy, there is a great selection of Player's Choice titles to choose from. I'm sure nobody has played absolutely everything on this system.

3. The Wii has yet to go online. When the Wii launches, you're still going to have to wait a few months for all of the channels to work properly. The Web browser is a ways off. None of the launch games have online components. The virtual console will be up and running, but most of the titles available are already available on GC in one form or another, whether it be from compilations, unlockables in other games or through the GBA player. If you really want to play Legend of Zelda or Sonic the Hedgehog, it's totally possible on Cube.

2. The Wii's broken components need to be fixed. Don't misunderstand me. The Wii is an amazing piece of technology, and deserves the praise it recieves.But there are some glaring problems that Nintendo needs to address IMMEDIATELY! First, the Wiimote's speaker. This can easily be rectified if from now on, Nintendo puts a higher quality speaker in the Wiimote during the manufacturing process. Next, the sensor bar. Sounds like bright light breaks it.What kind of bright light? Direct light from track lighting? Sunlight? This is a design flaw Nintendo needs to iron out before the next shipment goes out, and must be changed on a manufacturing level. I'm sure that in a years time, none of the Wii's being sold will have these problems, and the DVD playback software might even be built in.

1. The launch games are spectacularly unspectacular. Of course, I may be touting my horn a little early here but let's take a close look at the launch games. Twilight Princess, an excellent GC port with Wii controls. Will be available for GC soon for about $49.99. Exitetruck, a shallow yet impressive tech demo. Red Steel, a rushed and fundamentally flawed FPS with interesting controls with an unrealized potential. Wii Sports, Super Monkey Ball and Rayman Raving Rabbids are spectacular party games. Unforetunately, in order to play them that way, expect to shell out another $180.00 for controllers. Trauma Center Second Opinion, a great game that shows off the Wii's strengths and an example of great game design. Also available on the DS.

None of these games are worth the price of admission in my opinion. Like I've said many times before, the piece of software that will define the Wii and the next evolution in gaming, we haven't even seen yet. ( Unless it's Super Mario Galaxy, but that's a pretty tall order for that game ) Metriod Prime 3 isn't it. Warioware isn't it. These games will be awesome though, and totally worth getting a Wii for after they come out one year from now. I really want a Wii, but not badly enough to pay PS3 prices for something that will be a substantially better value in a year.

Look at the Xbox 360. What a difference a year makes. So it will be the same with the Nintendo Wii. Now, if you excuse me, I have 30 or so Gamecube games I have to finish before that time.

Super Mario Bros. was the reason I got into video games in the first place. I loved that game more than any man should love a game. Super Mario 2 was great, but it wasn't the same thing as Super Mario 1. Then Super Mario Bros. 3 came along. It had everything I loved about Super Mario 1, 2 and more. The depth of the game was like nothing I ever could have imagined. I played that game until I was so good at it, I could go through the entire game without warping on one life.

When the Super NES launched and I got my hands on Super Mario World, it wasn't long before I turned my nose up at it. Here was a Mario game on what was supposed to be a better, more powerful system. It had much less variety than Mario 3 (Cape and Fireflower only, no Racoon tail, no Tanooki suit, frog suit and for the love of God, no Hammer Bros. suit!) and the secrets were few and a little too direct for my tastes. (Star Road and Secret World...you'd have to be playing the game with your feet in order NOT to find them) Still, given the competition at the time, it was easy for me to look at it this way. Final Fantasy II (IV), Suer Castlevania IV, Actraiser, Contra III and even Legend of the Mystical Ninja had captured more of my attention. I disliked Super Mario World.

Luckily, near the end of the Super NES' life, a little game called Yoshi's Island reminded me how much I liked Mario platformers. It was completely different than the rest of the series. It replaced the secrets with a score based completion extra level opening system, which I found refreshing. At the time though, I felt that there wasn't too much more that cold be done with Mario games.

Then came Super Mario 64. This game exceeded everything I could have possibly imagined at the time. It was revolutionary not only as a Mario game, but as a video game period. It definately changed my view towards Nintendo, and the importance of the Mario series. I played Mario 64 as much as I played Mario 1 and 3. I had one file on my cart at one point when I'm sure I had gotten every coin possible in the game. Only truly, great revolutionary games keep one's attention for so long.

Now we come to Super Mario Sunshine. I enjoyed it, I really did. I liked the throwback to simple platforming but in a 3D space. I liked certain levels. Yet, it didn't have as much variety in environments as Super Mario 64. The camera was still a problem. It had points in the game that when I completed them I said, "Thank God I'll never have to do that again..." (cleaning up all the goo within a certain time...soooo angry). After I saw the ending once, I never did finish collecting all the shines. I just lost interest in it after I felt it had been completed, which was doing just enough to see the credits roll. I'll go back and play the game again someday, after I can't remember how much it frustrated me. It still is a very, very good game. A great game in fact.

The problem is that Super Mario Sunshine is not only the 7th game in a series that has defined video games for the last 20 years, but it is also the follow up to one one the most revolutionary games on all time. The most revolutionary 3D game of all time. There is no way....even with a huge variety in environments, a narrative like Paper Mario, no camera problems and enjoyable tasks 100% of the time.....that this game would have ever surpassed Super Mario 64 in the hearts and minds of gamers. It was always destined to be the one of the lessers of the series, to take it's place with Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario World. If Super Mario Sunshine had been Banjo Kazooie 3 or Jak and Daxter, none of these complaints would be given any weight; they would've been written off  so that people could convince other people to share this unique experience. The expectations of the Mario series eradicates this thinking.

Super Mario Sunshine was a bit of a departure from the staples of the series, I feel it's very experimental. Sometimes a departure can be refreshing and pay off, as was the case with Yoshi's Island. But such is the nature of an experiment. It can go either way.

I've been playing Super Mario World on my GBA as of late, and finding that I really enjoy it. In retrospect, it's a really solid game. Really solid games are rare. That's how Super Mario Sunshine will be percieved 10 years from now. Just a really solid, enjoyable game.

With Super Mario Galaxy on the horizon, it's hard to say how that will be percieved. I have my bets on it fitting into the Yoshi's Island category....different, but it works. I can't imagine anything more revolutionary than Super Mario 64 happening to the Mario series. But, I've made that mistake before....

Lately, I've noticed some doubt in the forums as to whether Twilight Princess will actually hit the Gamecube on December 11th. I honestly have to say that I have my doubts as well.

If Twilight Princess was not the only launch game that was from the "holy trinity"; in other words, if Metriod Prime 3:Corruption or Super Mario Galaxy were ready to ship on day 1, I wouldn't be to concerned about the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess. On launch day, without Twilight Princess, are there really any compelling reasons to buy a Wii for the hardcore gamer? Wii Sports, Excite Truck and Call of Duty 3 are not going to fill that void. Unless Nintendo Wii's and Wii copies of Twilight princess are selling on 1:1 ratio, I fear for the Gamecube version's existence.

It would be an incredible mistake not to release Twilight Princess on the Gamecube in my opinion. Out of the 15 million or so Gamecubes out there wordwide, I'll bet 5 million of them are still being played. At least 1 million of them in the states alone are probably Nintendo loyalists. Canning the Gamecube version would be a wound that would not easily heal even among the hardcore Nintendo fans. Overall trust with Nintendo would fall with their fanbase.

More importantly, is the effect it would have on retailers. Retailers have been taking preorders on Twilight Princess on the Gamecube for almost 2 years now. Having to refund or redirect all of those preorders would definately cost these retailers alot of time and money. Making retailers annoyed is not a good idea when you're launching a new system up against a hype machine such as Sony's Playstation 3.It's just bad business.

Nintendo can't afford to not launch Twilight Princess on the Gamecube in my opinion, looking at Sega's history with a list of similar events leading up to the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was an excellent gaming machine, way ahead of it's time, with some truly excellent games and 3rd party support. It was ultimately Sega's own reputation that killed the Dreamcast. Gamers and retailers couldn't get over the SegaCD, 32X and Saturn fiasco. A little of good faith towards your fanbase can go a long way, and the release of Twilight Princess on the Gamecube would most definately make up for Nintendo dropping support of their console in early 2005.

Even without Twilight Princess, I'll be getting Baiten Kaitos Origins and Tomb Raider Legends in order to finish my Gamecube collection this winter. If Twilight Princess is not available for my Gamecube, my relationship as a loyal customer with Nintendo will end as well.

On the Gamecube forums as of late, I'm surprised to see how many threads are about the death of the Gamecube. I'm guilty of creating one of these myself, after watching Nintendo's E3 press conference live and seeing nothing announced or even shown for Gamecube, I quickly assumed the worst, and posted a thread hoping that someone would tell me otherwise. A few people did, and after learning of Super Paper Mario and the GC version of Twilight Princess was still on track, I breathed a sign of relief....

I've seen the "twilight year" (no pun intended) of four Nintendo consoles now, and I must say...this is best last year one of Nintendo consoles has seen since the NES. I'm surprised how much Nintendo is supporting it. In the final year of the NES, which ended up being 1994, we never saw another Mario game, much less a Zelda game. The Super NES was blessed with Super Mario RPG in 1996, a shoddy version of Street Fighter 2 Alpha and not much else worth mentioning. The N64's final year was the bleakest of them all with only Paper Mario and one of my personal most hated games of all time, Conker's Bad Fur Day. The Gamecube is getting Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario and Kirby, along with quite a few decent third party titles. Baten Kaitos Origins, Tomb Raider Legend, Lego Star Wars 2, Super Monkey Ball adventure, Splinter Cell 4, Madden 07 and a few more. Certainly, if all of these third party offerings are terrible, there are still three extremely high profile games coming from Nintendo.

I'm wondering if this is partly due to the Wii's backwards compatibility. I'd like to imagine the Wii selling extremely successfully, the surprise hit of the next generation. I'd also like to imagine that all those new found Wii users besides enjoying the virtual console and Wii games, discover the treasure trove that is the Gamecube's library. I would love to imagine that the demand for Gamecube games grows so much that it tacks on another year or two to the console's life......Aaaahhhh. Not likely. It doesn't seem like landslide sales for the Nintendo DS have saved the Gameboy Advance from fading into obscurity.

In my opinion, this has been one of the longest console generations I can remember, starting in 1999 with the Dreamcast and ending in 2006 appearently. While after 7 years seems like more than enough time to move on, I feel that the Gamecube and GBA are walking away from us with yet more untapped potential. I think Resident Evil 4 and Twilight Princess push the Gamecube hard, but not to the limit. I think the Gamecube can do more. That goes for the GBA as well. I think the GBA is capable of greater 2d and even 3d than anything we've seen yet.

Oh well, they've both had a good run, and while there is so much untapped potential...which I won't go into here....it's not over yet. Here's hoping that the Gamecube and GBA can continue to entertain me at the end of 2006 with new software, and with a little luck, into 2007 as well. A man can dream.

It's funny that in Japan the Nintendo DS is now in it's second iteration, and it's selling much much better than the original model. Alot of this is in part due to the unique design of the new model, but is it the only factor? Absolutely not.

If the DS Lite launched in North America tomorrow, would it sell out as it did in Japan? Perhaps, but doubtful. Why? The DS is selling slightly better than the PSP in America right? Perhaps, but it's not outpacing the PSP the way it is in Japan. Why? Do Japanese gamers only love Nintendo? Hardly. The PS2 is far more of a success in Japan than Gamecube. Well then, what gives? The real reason that the DS is sold out in Japan is mostly due to a piece of software that isn't even in America yet.

In Japan it's called "Brain Training for Adults". It could be considered as big of a killer app in regards to how Tetris was a killer app for the original Gameboy. It uses all of the DS's unique functions in unique ways. Most importantly of all, it has got the attention of people who usually wouldn't play video games. It's also spawned  a sequel and an entire sub-genre of similar games and imitations on the DS all off which sell really well. People of all ages and lifestyles are playing it in Japan now.

When it's released under the name "Brain Age" in America, will it gain similar success? Hard to say. It depends on how much North Americans are interested in improving themselves, something which I think is much much more prominent in Japanese culture. It also greatly depends on how Nintendo markets it. If they market it to the gaming culture, it may not achieve the same success.

It will be interesting to see what happens when "Brain Age" is released in North America. I hope it achieves the same level of success it has in Japan. Only time will tell.